W9- My Pa

I've had tough last few days. My Grandpa passed away recently and me and my family have been sharing a lot of old stories about him to try and celebrate his life instead of mourn. It's hard regardless, but a lot of the stories we've been sharing have been really funny, with quite a few being about food.

The first thing that you'd need to know about my Grandpa, or as we call him Pa, would be that he is extremely serious about his food. He served in WWII and that is where many of his great stories came from. My favorite food/war story would have to be the time when Pa's ship came under attack. Pa was eating in the dining hall of his ship when enemy planes began bombing his ship, but like I said Pa was serious about his food, so he finished up as much as he could and then grabbed his sandwich and ran up to the deck. When he made it to the deck he had sandwich in hand and jumped onto a mounted turret and began firing on the enemy planes. The image of Pa eating a sandwich while shooting at planes has always been one that I laughed at when thinking about it. This was just one of the amazing stories that he shared with me and my family about the warm, but trust me, there were dozens more (most though not food related).

When my Pa got out of the Navy he returned home and immediately started working at AEP. As if it wasn't enough to work 40+ hours a week with the electric company, Pa had a huge farm that he maintained all the way until he was 85 years old. His farm was absolutely enormous, with a gigantic variety of foods to choose from. He had corn, green beans, lettuce, cantaloupe, and many, many more. He loved his farm more then anything except maybe his family; although that is debatable.

I just wanted to share some things about his life in a small way to honor him. There are so many great things that my Pa did in his life and I am so lucky to have had him live next door to me for 18 years of my life. He always produced the best foods that I've ever eaten; and that's just something that I'll never forget. I'm going to miss Pa, but it was his time to go, I mean he did live to be 92. I guess that the way he lived kept him young because I'm not sure if I've ever seen an 85 year old man gardening all day. He was a strong man and a kind of man there just isn't anymore of these days. It's hard to say goodbye, but I believe Pa's in a better place now, reunited with my Grandma and having as much food as he wants.

W8- O'Beaty's Review

On our trip to O'Beaty's I unfortunately did not eat anything. I've had O'Beaty's before and really enjoyed it, but on the day that we went as a class I just wasn't hungry at all; and a hot dog was about the furthest thing away from what I would've wanted to eat. I say that because on the day we went I had to pull a near-all-nighter the night before and had only woke up an hour before we were supposed to eat. So for the basis of this blog I will talk about my prior experiences at O'Beaty's and what I thought of the food.

I remember the first time that I went into O'Beaty's fairly vividly for a few reasons, but I will start off with what I ate and how it was. I'd never been to the Union St. O'Beaty's that we went to and my only two experiences with the restaurant were at the original West State St. venue. The first thing that stood out when I went into O'Beaty's was the same thing that stuck out when we went as a class to the Union St. version.

The decorations at the original restaurant are all autographed pictures of celebrities, pictures of places all over the U.S. with a lot of New Orleans as the focal point, and some Burlesque-style pictures and other decorations fill the restaurant. I really like all of the autographed pictures of celebrities (even if most are of B-list and lower). Both restaurants have a very New Orleans feel to them because of all the peppers on the sign out front and in the restaurant; I guess it's really the Cajun style that I'm picking up on.

Finally to the food though, which is pretty good stuff if I do say so myself. You would think that there's nothing really that special about a hot dog restaurant; I mean it's just such a basic food that's kind of hard to make unique, but there are a few restaurants like O'Beaty's that have been able to do just this. Skyline Chilli in Cincinnati is probably my favorite hot dogs that I could ever get- well and of course Mom's, but O'Beaty's is definitely up there with those two. The first time I went there I had a Cajun Dog and Cajun Fries. You'd think that would be too much spice to be enjoyable, but I just can't get enough spice in my foods so I really enjoyed the food anyway. The bad part though is what happened after I ate.

I'll just start this story by saying that O'Beaty's should have a credit/debit card scanner- they may now, but they didn't when this happened. So, after I ate I tried to pay with my debit card, too which the employee told me I'd have to get cash. He let me go to an ATM at this point without leaving anything behind for collateral. Well it just so happened that I had $19 in my account, so I couldn't withdraw money since it was under $20. And it was at this point that I dine-and-dashed; something that I never thought I would do. I felt so horrible the rest of the day for doing this, but thankfully I was getting paid the next day and returned to pay my debt. So now you know the tale of how I accidentally dine-and-dashed; a tale that my friends still get a kick out of.

W7- Food Inc. & the Persuasive Power of Film

Food Inc. is a great documentary in achieving it's goal. The goal seems to be to persuade the audience into making changes in their diets so that we may change into a society built on more fundamental food thinking that as a society we have forgotten. Joel Salatin's food thinking may seem primitive, but really he is way ahead of all of America in ways of viewing his food. He stands out to me as the smartest, most influential food expert in the film, not that he is a genius scientist finding new ways to make food cheaper, but ironically in the way that he makes his food the way that was done in the past and should be done still today.

Salatin seems to know more about the industrial food complex that America has in place now then any other expert in the film. With all the information that his father and grandpa passed down to him, and his lack of faith in any form of government, he has developed his own way of thinking about the entire American food system. The way that he looks at food has already had a big influence on my own thinking about food. I started buying organic food only days after watching the food- even though Salatin describes what I bought as organic, compared to his superior "beyond organic" food.

There are so many influential cases in Food Inc. that it's hard to pick from which one had the biggest impact, but the mother that had her son die because of bad food at a Jack-in-the-Box was extremely effective because of how sad it was. Any time that a child dies it is an absolutely devastating thing, but the way that the mother went about his dying was very moving. By enacting a law in his honor and constantly working towards having this situation never happening to others, she has made a huge mark on the American food system and therefor her son has too.

One last situation that I found to be intriguing, sad, and an eye opening experience was with the farmer that was being sued by Monsanto. Getting to hear all of the testimonials from people that lost everything because of Monsanto, it really left a mark. I felt incredibly bad for all of these people because they couldn't do anything about the spread of Monsanto soy beans, but yet they still couldn't get out of being sued. After watching this I felt a deep hate for this huge company- a kind of hate that helped me want to change my own way of food thinking.

Most everything that takes place in this film is influential- film just has a way at getting people on board with it's message. Really there is no better way to influence people because of all of the music, effects, edits, etc. that film can do to add emotion. I have always felt that film is about the most powerful motivational tool that a person can use, and this film just reinforces that way of thinking. There have been so many times when I have been down for the count and a film has changed something big or small in my life and this was just another one that changed something in my life for the better.

W6- Organic Food

Since we've started reading The Omnivore's Dilemma I've really been thinking about the things that I put into my body. I've been catching myself reading the back of foods at the grocery store and found that it's true that corn is in everything. I'm trying change my diet now to look more like that of Joel Salatin, but obviously I'm not going to be able to get all of my food at a farm full of fresh food. The plan then is to try and switch to a more organic diet- even if it isn't beyond-organic like Salatin's meals.

So I tried out the organic food section in Kroger and tried to examine closely the ingredients that I want to avoid. What I ended up getting at Kroger were a few organic foods, but what most of my cart was still filled with was the standard food stuffs that I have been eating throughout college. I ended up getting some frozen chicken strips, Dr. Pepper 10, Coke, some fresh crab cakes from the seafood section (which I may say turned out amazing), some sushi, milk, and raisin bran. I felt like a few things from my prior life would have to stay in my new diet, after all it would just be too tough to quit cold turkey. Oh and I also got some fresh deli meat cause I just can't go back to eating the packaged stuff that I grew up eating. I would have gotten everything else organic if I could have gone to some kind of Whole Foods, but this is all I had and I took it, but still some of those things are just way too pricey- $5 for milk- that's absolutely ridiculous. Other then those items though I did get organic food and have tried out all of them.

Okay so the first food I had out of my organics foods was a honey dipped beef jerky. This jerky only had about 6-8 ingredients and was probably the best jerky I have ever had in my life. I would name the ingredients right now, but it was so good that I already ate it all and threw away the package. The next thing I tried out was my GoLean Crunch cereal this morning. The box has a big logo that proudly reads NO HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP FOR 25 YEARS. I must say that this cereal was delicious too and even was true to it's claims that it keeps you full longer.

Some other stuff I got were some Blue Tortilla Chips that are really good, but a little bit too pricey for an average size bag. I also picked up some organic nacho cheese sauce that went really good with the blue chips and had a decent price tag to go along with it. Another thing that I got were Spinach Pizza Rolls that for some odd reason were very appealing to me. I haven't had the chance to try them out yet, but I expect that they'll be very good because of how tasty all of the other organic foods have been. Other then the price tags there is nothing I dislike about the taste of these foods, so the plan's going well so far and I plan to keep trying different organic food and hope that I have a change in my overall diet.

W5- Our Fast Food Nation

When I was a kid I loved fast food. Wendy's was where it was at for me, where I would always have my Mom get me 10 nuggets and a frosty. Mom would always let me get this meal once or twice a week, and because I was a very picky eater as a child this was always the "meal" i got. I would never want to venture into vegetable territory and not even touch beef products. Cheese pizza from Pizza Hut was the other kind of restaurant food that I would get, but eventually moved on to pepperoni at about 8-years-old. So in my young years it was all Wendy's and Pizza Hut, but my Mom got in to the Beanie Baby craze in the late 90's so McDonalds became a normal stop when they started to have the toys in the happy meals. Needless to say because of all of this fast food I was kind of a chubby kid, and because of this wanted to get out of the fast food craze of my youth and develop into a healthier eater.

Some time around 16 I wanted to stop eating garbage fast food and began only eating cooked meals that my Mom would make. So, in the time between my Sophomore year of high school until college I rarely ate fast food and it wasn't till some of these poor years of college that I began eating fast food again. I worked at Pizza Hut for awhile in college and began eating there a lot, but when this was happening I started to get a little chubby again and quite eating the pizza there.

Nowadays I eat fast food here and there, but never to an extreme amount. I think I've seen Food Inc. and Supersize Me a couple times a piece, so I really have been taught from those and from personal experience what fast food can do to my body.

As for the second part of the blog, I haven't been to too many different countries, but the one I have been to many times is Canada. In Canada, fast food restaurants are kind of the same as here in America, but they seem to be much more spread out. Obviously Canada doesn't have the same structure as America in terms of urban areas and people per area, so this makes sense that fast food chains would be more spread out throughout the country. One difference that I noticed the last time that I was up north was that many of the McDonalds and Wendy's had healthy alternatives that I've never seen here in America. I can't exactly remember the foods that were on the menus, just the heading of healthy choices at a few places we went to. The only other thing that really is different about Canada compared to America is that there are a ton of Tim Horton's. I'm fairly certain that Tim Horton's started in Canada so it makes sense that it is the most popular chain up there, and I must say I love Tim Horton's, with Ice Cap's & donuts being amazing and even the lunch foods being great. The turkey subs have some kind of sauce on it that is absolutely amazing and I would love to have one for dinner right now.

W4- American Food

Deciding what quintessential American food actually is is a hard task to do. When taking out burgers, fries, and pizza the job becomes even harder to decide. If I were to say there is an "American food" it would have to be a collection of all cultures foods. This may kind of seem like a cop out, but this is the best thing I can think of to symbolize the melting pot that is America. There are far too many different meals and traditions in America to make this the basis for a short post though.

My belief of "American Food" is too large a topic so I will focus on a few dishes that I assume are customs that are only here in America. So if I were opening an American restaurant in Russia I feel it would definitely have to have burgers and fries, but there would be plenty other foods. Seafood I feel like would be a major contribution in the American restaurant. Lobster, shrimp, crab cakes, clam chowder, all those amazing New England type of meals. Of course the restaurant would not have burgers in fries if it were a seafood place because that would cause a strange identity crisis. Seafood I feel would be something that would work well in Russia, I'm not sure why (possible the cold of New England), but I feel a connection between NE and Russia making some weird connection I would feel confident about in opening a seafood restaurant there.

Another American food I think of is very close to the last, but has a major difference in the taste. Seafood from the South, like Cajun still foods from the Louisiana region of the country. Since the base food is the same between the first idea and this one the restaurant could be opened with both Cajun and New England still seafood on the menu. I haven't really got to eat much Southern seafood in my life, but from what I have it is really good and could spice of the Russian people's lives while living in a cold country. I'm thinking about maybe adding foods like gator tail to the menu, but I'm not sure how much it would cost to import this food. I guess the tails could be imported from India, it would be a long distance but well worth the cost's of importing. Wait...are there gators in India or just Croc's...there would need to be research.

Since I've already accounted for 2 major producers of seafood in America I might as well pick up the California species of fish too. After doing some research I've food that they're are many species of fish and crustaceans that only are found in the Pacific ocean and on the California Coast. These fish would be on the menu, but there are other fish that are found in the area that could be included. Salmon, perch, walleye, and other fresh water fish could be on the menu, but I feel like these fish would already be available in Russia. Maybe if they were in Russia these fish species could be something familiar that the people are comfortable with and eventually move toward the American exclusives. Well that would be my restaurant...makes me sound like a slaughterer if fish.

W3- Teachers

When it comes to cooking- I'm not the man that anybody should want making dinner for them. My cooking skills don't go beyond putting some freezer food into the oven or grilling the simplest of meals on the stove top. Some of the specialties that I've been know to cook up on visits from my brother or some of my friends from my hometown are- the frozen viola meals that come in bags that you just dump into a frying pan and let it pretty much cook itself. There are of course the college requirements to have chicken sticks, $1 pizzas, pizza rolls, fish planks, etc. Those things are easy for me to prepare for visitors, and to be quite honest I sometimes get these foods just so my company has something quick to eat that I wont mind giving away.

There are plenty of these little freezer foods that I have learned to get from my friends. My friend DJ introduced me to the viola's that can be whipped up really quick and taste better then 90% of other freezer food at a decent price to boot. DJ was my roommate for 3 yrs and introduced me to many fast cooking- high calorie food, but it was another roommate from last year that showed me a lot of healthy alternatives. Nathan showed me many fruit snacks that I particularly like, one of which was to add fruit such as cranberries into my cereal. I have no idea why I never thought to do this...probably because my taste in cereals was one of the only foods that hadn't evolved from a childlike state till recently, but the addition of fruit adds a rather nice taste that provides healthy benefits. To go along with something non-food related that Nathan brought to my attention was to eat those adult gummy vitamins. They're definitely a good boost of energy in the morning and I suggest them to anybody.

Probably the one food teacher I've benefited the most from is like many other people- my Mom. Mom has taught me to make spaghetti, grilled chicken, and pasta dishes. Although my renditions of these family favorites can't compare to Mom's dishes, they do provide me a good source for dinners that I can prepare myself. The best thing that I ever learned to cook from my Mom is something that I can actually make with a result that's very similar to that of my Mom's own. One of things that was mentioned in the explanation for this blog post was the grilled cheese that your friend gave you an alternative way of preparing, and that is precisely what my Mom had taught me. Even though I hate not being able to cook up grilled cheese the right way, I will resort to making it the alternative way. When I do make it the right way I'd be hard-pressed to find something I'd rather have for lunch. I still think that my Mom makes the best grilled cheese, after all there's nothing like being at home while Mom cooks up something delicious. I'd like to add that the best way in the world to have  grilled cheese is with ketchup. I don't know why, but that is the way that I ate grilled cheese as a kid, and continue to do it that way to this day.

The one last thing I'd like to add is putting chips on sandwich's. My best friend Aaron showed me this technique in middle school and I've done it this way on turkey, salami, bologna, etc sandwich's to this day. I recommend this to everybody when preparing their next lunch meat sandwich.

W2- Family Food Cultures

This may or may not be what this blog is supposed to represent, but the best thing I could think of is that my family is kind of like a big bag of skittles. Every person in my immediate family is so drastically different that a bag of candy is the best way I could explain the different...flavors of my family. To get even more specific with the analogy, every person is like a different variation of skittles.

My brother Alex is like a bag of sour skittles, sour on the outside, but underneath the sour coating there is a sweet core that tastes like the original skittles.

Original I guess would have to be my Dad because of how consistent the flavor is. These kind of skittles are the basis for every variety that has came after it, and are somewhat plain compared to the other kinds available now. The one thing about the original is that it is always good and never lets you down, whereas the other kinds are more particular and are not for everyone.

My Mom would be the blender kind, so sweet that it's almost too much. The blenders take all the flavors and mix them too, there adapted to be like all of the other skittles, even if it sometimes comes out weird. What I mean by this is that Mom takes a little bit from all of us and tries to relate to all of our little quirks (even if she doesn't understand us sometimes).

I think that the tropical kind of skittles are the strange variety of skittles that taste a lot different then the others, but you can tell there based off the others. My sister Beth is the tropical kind, way out there and unique in every way.

That leaves me and the only kind of skittles left...the CRAZY CORES! Now these are strange candies. When you bite in to one your somewhat surprised at the taste and may not initially like it. The more that you eat the crazy cores the more you like them though.

So, I hope that this is what this assignment could somehow be translated into. I thought of the analogy and just thought it was too perfect a way to describe my diverse family. Even though this isn't exactly a culture based food for my family...everyone likes skittles, with my family being no exception.

W1- Remembering Home

In my home there really aren't a ton of foods that have been passed down through the years. A few things that I can think of are Broccoli Casserole and something that as a child I always called "The Stuff". Now broccoli casserole is kind of a shame-based food because obviously broccoli is supposed to be a healthy food choice, but when it is smothered in Velveeta cheese and topped with a whole sleeve of Ritz crackers it really defeats the purpose of eating broccoli. For a long time this is the only way that I would eat broccoli, but I've snapped out of my childish picky eating phase and now like broccoli by itself or with slaw dressing (Note: the word "slaw" may be the most awful sounding word in the English language). 

"The Stuff"- an amazing dish that my Mom has made since my middle school years. All of my friends that have came to my house over the years and had the privilege of eating "the stuff" have loved it. My best friend Aaron is in the army now and every time he comes home he has me tell my mom to make "the stuff". This has became a tradition throughout the last three years that Aaron has been in the military, possibly making this a kind of situation where this is something he needs when he comes home.

Okay so "the stuff" is what I've always called this dish that my Mom makes, but last year I found out exactly what the dish is called. What it actually is is just a simple recipe called chicken tetrazzini. So, the actually name of "the stuff" was revealed to me, and I must say I was kind of disappointed by it being a simple recipe that is known to many people. Although I was disappointed to find this out, there were a few extra ingredients that my Mom puts specially into her version of chicken tetrazzini. A simple brown sugar and melted butter mix is added into my Mom's recipe, but it makes all the difference in why hers is much better then any other chicken tetrazzini I could ever have. One more thing thanks to my Mom is that she taught me how to make this meal and I can gladly say that I can make this family tradition meal myself.